# Council Decision (CFSP) 2020/732 of 2 June 2020 in support of the UN Secretary-General’s Mechanism for investigation of alleged use of chemical and biological or toxin weapons, Division 1: BACKGROUND

Extent: E+W+S+N.I.

The United Nations (UN) Secretary-General’s Mechanism for investigation of alleged use of chemical and biological or toxin weapons (the ‘SGM’) was established in 1987 by the UN General Assembly by its Resolution A/RES/42/37C. This authority was reaffirmed by the UN Security Council by its Resolution 620 (1988). The technical guidelines and procedures for the timely and efficient investigation into reports of the alleged use of such weapons were developed by experts provided by interested UN Member States, and set out in UN General Assembly Document A/44/561 in 1989. Those guidelines and procedures were endorsed by the UN General Assembly in 1990 by its Resolution A/RES/45/57C.
Without a verification mechanism for the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, such as exists for the Chemical Weapons Convention, the SGM stands as the only independent international tool for investigating an allegation of the use of biological weapons, with the endorsement of both the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council.

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eudn/2020/732/annex/division/1 (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/eu-decision-2020-732/annex/division-1
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.